Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal are currently expected to release five triple-A games by August 04, 2025.
Lars Wingefors, the CEO ofCrystal Dynamicsand Eidos parent companyEmbracer, provided an update on the group’s pipeline of triple-A projects during a quarterly earnings presentation on Thursday.
He defined triple-A games as titles that have over 100 full-time developers at the peak of their development phase.
They must also have notable or significant marketing budgets and are expected to sell at least two million units.
And if development work is paid for by an external partner, Embracer must also have a notable economic upside.
One project that would appear to meet all three stipulations is Perfect Dark,a co-development between Xbox studio The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics, which is being funded byMicrosoft.
Another is Crystal Dynamics’ upcoming Tomb Raider game,which will be published by Amazon.
It was recently claimed thata new Deus Ex game was in very early development at Eidos Montreal, and that the studio was working on a new IP as well as collaborating with Microsoft onXboxgames including Fable.
Prior to last year’s completion of a $300 million deal to acquire a large part ofSquare Enix’s western development arm, Embracer said it was envisagingreleasing sequels, remakes, remasters, spin-offs and morefor Crystal Dynamics andEidos MontrealIPs, which also include Thief.
And in November, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos CEO Phil Rogers saidCrystal Dynamics had received an overwhelming responseto a survey designed to gauge interest in a potential revival of its long-dormant Legacy of Kain series.
The release of five triple-A games over the next five years would mark a significant increase on the three released by the two studios over the past five years.
They were 2018’sShadow of the Tomb Raider(Eidos Montreal), 2020’sMarvel’s Avengers(Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal) and 2021’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal).
Further reading
In total, Wingefors said Embracer plans to release 31 triple-A games by Jun 02, 2025.
In addition to the five from Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal, eight will come fromGearboxEntertainment, 11 fromSaber Interactive, six from Plaion, and one fromTHQ Nordic.
Four are expected to be released during Embracer’s next fiscal year ending in March 2024, with 7-8 released each year thereafter.
17 of these games are in full production, nine are in pre-production, and five are in the concept phase.
24 will be published internally, 28 will be developed internally, 23 are based on owned IP, 24 are based on established IP, and seven are based on new IP.
Only six of the 31 projects have been announced to date, Wingefors said.
